Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) (33 page)

No, it wasn’t possible, for Lord Silverton would save her.

The bolstering thought flitted through her mind at the precise moment she heard a hasty rapping on the door, which was thrust open, and there he stood, smiling and handsome, his arms outstretched as he advanced toward her and she threw herself into them, reveling in his warmth and the wonderfully familiar smell of his cologne, woody and masculine, which sent tendrils of desire all the way through her.

“Oh, Silverton, I thought you’d never come!” she cried, which wasn’t entirely true, but it was nice to be able to give vent to a heartfelt outpouring that expressed that her very desires and hopes had come true. “At first, I wished you hadn’t come to the church because of how it made me feel here”—she tapped her heart—“and now I’m so glad you did because, oh, I need some comfort right now.”

“I know just how to comfort you, Kitty, my love,” he murmured against her lips. “You were very aware how ready I was to step in if you only wanted me enough.”

Kitty twined her arms about his neck and pressed herself against him. Her body was on fire, and the hand he slipped into her bodice was only stoking her lust. “I wanted marriage more than anything, I’ll admit it, but I loved you more, it’s true. Though I thought I loved Nash until he betrayed me,” she added, sadly.

Silverton put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him; and as Kitty gazed at his face with its kind blue-grey eyes that smoldered with passion, beneath which there was no dueling scar, and the lovely springy waves of his hair that framed his handsome yet strongly made face, she knew she’d always been fated to kiss those sensitive lips and to lose herself in the passion of his kiss—and surrender her body to his.

“I shall never betray you, Kitty,” he promised, cradling her in his arms, then whisking her feet off the floor and placing her on the bed. “Be mine, Kitty?” His eyes were pleading as he cupped her cheek, joining her on the bed and gently toying with the top button of her gown. “Will you?”

She needed no more prompting. Already she felt close to exploding into a shower of passionate flames.

“Yes!”

There was mistaking the fact that her ardor clearly matched his for within seconds, it seemed, Silverton was as naked as she was, and she was beneath him on that big, comfortable bed, as he touched his lips to her eyes, her nose, blazing a trail of kisses down her neck, suckling her nipples.

She arched her body to meet him, passion bubbling in her veins, burning its way through her entire body. She was wet and ready for him, every nerve ending already heightened and ready to snap when his fingers found the slick nub at her core.

“Come inside me,” she begged, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him down to her, aware their time was limited. “Please.”

“Oh, Kitty, I love you, I adore you,” he whispered as he reached down to position himself at her entrance. His expression was full of heartfelt sincerity. “I will be true to you, I swear it, until the day you die; and you will never have cause to regret...becoming my...”

“Mistress,” she supplied.

“But I will love you as if you were my wife,” he promised as, with a soft groan, he slid into her; and Kitty believed this as he was caught up in the excitement of becoming one. An excitement she surely felt as keenly and deeply as he, the raw primal pleasure sweeping away any residual disappointment she might have harbored at the fact she’d not achieved what Nash had so briefly seemed to offer.

But what was a glittering wedding ring when Silverton’s love was pure and true?

And his desire to pleasure her was clear as he stroked her between her legs while he moved within her, and kissed her eyes, her lips, her breasts.

With a gasp, Kitty reached the pinnacle just before he did, shattering with a cry of joy which signaled his own climax.

Collapsing, truly satisfied, she basked in the tenderness of his embrace, soaking up the warmth and love he was offering her now and forever.

She’d always loved Silverton, she realized this; knew she always had. Life was a journey of compromises, and she could be happy with the one she’d made she felt, as she gazed into his adoring expression.

“Did I tell you I love you, Miss Kitty La Bijou?” he asked, resting on one elbow to gaze down at her, tracing the outline of her mouth with his fingertip.

She nodded.

“And did I tell you I loved you from about the time you decided the spelling pig at the Tower of London couldn’t really spell?”

She nodded again. “That was about when I fell in love with you. Except I didn’t know it at the time.” Her heart hitched. She loved these bantering sessions with Silverton.

“And did you know that you wield such power over me that I could refuse you nothing?”

“You make me laugh, Lord Silverton.”

“You make me happy, Kitty La Bijou.”

She became serious. “You make me happy, Lord Silverton. You always have.”

“I
want
to make you happy, Kitty.”

She was about to curl herself against him and suggest they do it all over again, as another surge of love and desire flooded through her, when there was a rap at the door.

Silverton, she noticed, looked outraged. “I thought the arrangement we had was understood,” he called.

When Kitty looked stricken, he whispered hastily, but reassuringly, “There was a little matter over your necklace. In order to placate Mrs. Montgomery and put an end to the matter, I’ve paid her a great deal more than it’s worth...while you and I shall go shopping for a more than adequate replacement. However,” he added in clipped tones, “I said we would emerge from here when we were ready.”

The rapping sounded again, and this time Nash’s voice issued through the keyhole, loud and desperate. “Kitty, I need to explain! Please, listen to me! Are you in there?”

Silverton shook his head, disbelievingly, while Kitty sat up, shocked, covering herself with the coverlet as if Nash might bust in at any moment.

“There’s nothing you can say, Lord Nash,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster. “You have betrayed me.”

“Kitty, I beg you, listen to me! You ran off before I had a chance to say anything.”

“And there’s nothing you can say that will make any difference, Lord Nash.” Indignantly, Kitty stared at the door, rising onto her knees as she wrapped her arms about Lord Silverton and kissed his right ear. He looked at her with a mixture of love, admiration and longing.

“Please, I—”

“It’s too late. Lord Silverton has shown me how a true gentleman behaves—”

“Lord Silverton? What has he got to do with any of this? Besides, Lord Silverton isn’t prepared to marry you. And I am! My father thought the marriage was not legal, but I went through every avenue with my solicitor, and he declared that the vows we were to say were indeed legally binding. I’ve now persuaded my father of the fact, and I’m here to persuade you. As my father will. Dorcas told me you’d been picked up by your old landlady and taken here, though Lord knows why.”

Mrs. Montgomery’s voice sounded in the passage, and then there was the sound of the key being turned in the lock, and the door was pushed open.

And there was barely any time for Kitty and Lord Silverton to hastily cover themselves, before Lord Nash’s earnest, eager face was staring at them.

First with disbelief.

Then, shock and horror.

And finally anger and dismay.

Certainly, dismay was written all over Lord Silverton’s face as Kitty looked between the two men...the one who would have married her after all, and the one...

She loved.

She swallowed, and tears welled up in her eyes. For both men.

“I’m sorry, Nash,” she whispered.

He looked as if she’d whipped him across the face with a cat o’ nine tails.

“I’m sorry, Kitty.”

It was Lord Silverton who was speaking, tenderly stroking the strands of flyaway hair from her forehead.

“Kitty? How could you?” Lord Nash asked brokenly. “We would have been married by now if...if you’d had faith in me.”

Kitty dropped her eyes. Guilt scored her very soul. Then she raised her head and whispered, “You deceived me once. I thought you’d done it again. It’s true; I should have had faith. I should have waited.” She swallowed and gently stroked Lord Silverton’s cheek. “But in truth, I have found that, after all, I have won my heart’s desire. I thought I wanted marriage above all else.” She tilted her head so that Lord Silverton could see the sincerity of her expression. Love, greater than she’d ever felt or even believed possible, flowered in her breast. Her breath hitched in her throat as she opened her mouth to say the truest words she’d ever spoken. “But now I know that, above all, I wanted love.” Almost tentatively she touched her finger to his lips and she thought she would cry with joy to see all her hopes for the future reflected in the eyes of the darling man before her. “And that’s what I’ve found.”

THE END

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